August 30, 2020

 

I can honestly say that when I awoke this morning it was the first time I felt the negative impact of being here.  I woke up listless, tired, did not care about doing anything.  There was supposed to be a rocket launch of a SpaceX vehicle at 9:30 but it was delayed until early evening so I went back to bed. When I got back in, I couldn’t fall back to sleep so I flipped on the television and blankly stared at whatever was on.  I was in a funk and I needed out of it.

I was off today and didn’t have to worry about working so I thought a quick jaunt to the fitness center would get me back on track.  All I needed to do was get my blood flowing and the gym was the right thing to do.  It was after 10:00 am so the disinfecting process scheduled daily at 9:00 am should be complete and I headed that way.

There is an attractive woman, I am guessing she is in her late twenties or early thirties, I can’t tell anymore, that sunbathes religiously every day from ten until noon.  I’m assuming she does this everyday only because when I go to the gym during those hours she is there. She is always by the end of the pool where the fitness center is, so there is a great deal of foot traffic.  When we first entered the bubble and were eventually released from quarantine, she began her daily ritual.  At first, she was out there alone, all alone enjoying the warmth before the temperatures got too high.  However, as the days passed, it became apparent more and more of the male population thought sunbathing at this time of the day was preferable.  Her isolation is no longer there, as she is surrounded by a great number of new found sun worshippers each day.  She hasn’t moved her location at all, away from the heavy foot traffic, so perhaps she enjoys those that lay out with her and those that enjoy walking by.  Guys are so predictable.

The workout helped me get out of my funk.  I guess I simply needed some exercise and movement.  I left the fitness center and took the long walk back to my room by crossing the bridges and walking past the restaurant in the middle of the lagoon.  The entire Utah Jazz team was having brunch together inside the café.  They had a long table all to themselves and it reminded me more of what occurs when collegiate teams dine out. That’s why sometimes I compare this to the NCAA tournament instead of the NBA playoffs.  The fact that they were dining all together, at the same table, laughing and joking, just gave me that sense. Donavan Mitchell was in that group, but my shoes weren’t.

The rain began to fall so after I ate an early lunch I went back to my room to take care of some pub business and began watching Shameless on Netflix.  I have no idea how many episodes I viewed as I fell asleep with the sound of the rain outside my door.  This ended up pretty much being a do nothing day and I guess it was something I needed.  I phoned my wife and parents to check in to see how everyone was doing and felt a bit alone after ending the calls.  My parents seemed fine but my wife and I felt on the same page.  We can’t wait until this is over as the separation is becoming a bit much. Don’t get me wrong, this is cool, but it is a long, long, long journey.

I walked over to the dining center and had, you guessed it, some other form of chicken and then remembered the rescheduled rocket launch was to take place at 7:30 pm.  I gathered some of my peeps and we strode out on the bridge to hopefully catch a glimpse of the SpaceX Falcon break through the clouds.  The rain had just stopped falling and there was a great deal of cloud cover so our chances were going to be slim.

I took a seat on one of the benches on the bridge.  While munching on my soft serve ice cream I had become to appreciate, Joakim Noah walked by and said, “Hey, I like your shirt.”  I looked down and realized I had on a University of Florida basketball t-shirt, his collegiate school.  His team, the Clippers, had just finished eliminating the Dallas Mavericks earlier in the day. “Hey, thanks, I wore it for you.”  He didn’t believe me as he continued on.

The rocket liftoff happened right on time but we could not see anything as the cloud cover was too dense and too low.  Now I was three for four with launches.  The one that was aborted, I don’t count because it hadn’t occurred. I felt like I just wanted to get today over with so I wished everyone a good night and went back to my room for a few more Shameless episodes and an early sleep.  Tomorrow will be a new day and I do not want a repeat of today.